Many conventional child safety seats are designed to provide optimized protection in frontal crash configurations. About 25% of all crashes, however, occur from the side. Injuries received in side impact crashes are generally more severe than those typically received in front crashes. It is estimated that up to 30% of all fatalities are a result of side impact crashes. As a result, there is a great need for effective and reliable side impact protection in child safety seats.
Previous attempts at improving the side impact protection of child safety seats suffer from various drawbacks. In one attempt cushion elements have been attached to the interior of the head rest of a child safety seat. This results in improved protection of the head of a child only. The protection of other parts of the child's body, such as the child's torso, is not improved by these cushion elements. In another attempt, large damping components have been attached to the exterior of a child safety seat. While these damping components may significantly improve the side impact protection of the respective child safety seat, they increase the overall dimensions of the child safety seat. In many situations, for example in small vehicles, this might turn out to be a problem. In yet another attempt, adjustable protective elements have been added to a child safety seat whose configuration can be adapted to various factors. To achieve optimal side impact protection it has to be ensured that the adjustable protective elements of these child safety seats are always correctly configured which is not a trivial task.
As a result, most of the previous attempts at improving the side impact protection of child safety seats are associated with disadvantages such as shortcomings with respect to their ease of use. In addition, in many of these child safety seats the resulting protective effect of the child safety seat in a side crash is unsatisfactory and insufficient.